Apologies for my long absence in the world of blogging, but I have been extraordinarily busy and/or ill (both interrelated.) Rest assured that things have been good, though, and life continues happily at the Lancaster’s. I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading and a little crocheting here and there, but certainly not as much as I’d like. Work has been *insane!* (More on that later.)

Jules and I have been wanting to start an urban garden of some variety for awhile. We had been toying with the idea of doing square-foot gardening up on our deck since it’s a decent size, but the gathering of materials seemed too daunting of a task and we never actually did anything about it this summer. Just as we were about to give up on the idea for this year, I got an email from Amazon for their deal of the day, which on this particular day happened to be the Aerogrow Aerogarden Indoor Herb Garden for less than $100. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to give gardening a shot in a sort of futuristic, gadgety way. Last Monday Jules and I planted the first of the herbs, which come in these little pods. They sit on top of a base full of water, which gets cycled and pumped through the lip of the hole and down through the spongy base of the pods, where the plants take root. There is no soil involved, it is all done with water and mineral supplement tablets (which appear to be mostly seaweed.) Until now I had never seen a hydroponics system in action, and let me tell you, it is incredibly awesome. Our cats are especially interested in the sound of the running water!

I wish I had taken a photo of the progress this morning, but after a week, all the plants have come up and are almost an inch tall! The growth rate is quite incredible. We were able to take a few of the caps off the herb pods this morning. I’ll be sure to take a photo soon to show off the progress.